S5.04 Genetics of the Americas: from migration to the modern day
Sally: Hello, and welcome to Genetics Unzipped - the Genetics Society podcast. I’m Dr Sally Le Page, and as Kat mentioned last time, I am the new producer of Genetics Unzipped and I’ll be co-presenting with Kat going forward.
In today’s episode we’re looking at a genetic history of the Americas; the controversies surrounding how humans first migrated to the continent, plus some of the modern day issues about how Native American genomes are used in genetic research.
Jennifer Raff, Image courtesy of Jennifer Raff
Jennifer Raff: A Genetic History of the Americas
We’re starting our story today roughly 20,000 years ago, when our species, Homo sapiens, was spreading across the world and beginning to populate the American continents. By piecing together physical clues from the fossil record - human bones, stone tools, footprints - as well as genetic clues from both ancient and modern genomes, anthropologists are building up a picture of how and when humans moved from East Asia into North America. But there is still plenty of room for debate.
Jennifer Raff is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas with a dual Ph.D. in anthropology and genetics and she recently published a book called ORIGIN: A Genetic History of the Americas summarising what we know so far about this ancient migration.
Krystal Tsosie: Exploring Native American genetics
One strand of evidence that anthropologists have used to uncover this story is population genetics on these Native American descendants. Sadly, as is often the case in the history of genetics, racism has left its mark on the field and its effects are still being felt in modern genetics research. Indigenous people who have been marginalised, oppressed and exploited by white European colonists for the past few centuries have seen a surge of interest from multinational pharmaceutical companies who want to use their genetic data. Understandably, many see genetic research as just yet another area where non-Native parties want to profit from Native communities with little thought for how their research will benefit those communities.
To learn more about how Indigenous people are involved in genetics research, I sat down with Krystal Tsosie, a Native American geneticist and ethicist at Vanderbilt University. She’s also a cofounder of the Native BioData Consortium, a Native American run genetic biobank promoting research that benefits Indigenous peoples.
Krystal Tsosie, Image courtesy of Krystal Tsosie
That’s all for now. Thanks to both Jennifer Raff and Krystal Tsosie for their illuminating insight into this topic.
We’ll be back next time taking a look at the secret sex lives of cancer cells. We all know that sex sells, but Kat will be finding out about the astonishing discovery that not only do cancer cells have sex with each other, but also that tumours with XX chromosomes behave differently to tumours with XY chromosomes. You won’t want to miss it.
For more information about this podcast including show notes, transcripts, links, references, music credits and everything else head over to geneticsunzipped.com You can find us on Twitter @geneticsunzip and please do take a moment to rate and review us on Apple podcasts - it really makes a difference and helps more people discover the show.
This episode of Genetics Unzipped was written, presented and produced by me, Dr Sally Le Page. It is created by First Create the Media for The Genetics Society - one of the oldest learned societies in the world dedicated to supporting and promoting the research, teaching and application of genetics. You can find out more and apply to join at genetics.org.uk. Our theme music was composed by Dan Pollard, and the logo was designed by James Mayall. Thanks for listening, and until next time, goodbye.
Image credits:
23,000 year old fossilised human footprints from White Sands National Park, Image courtesy of National Parks Service
